Can Gapyear.com Conquer the Universe?

Space, the final frontier. That is for one man at least.

Gapyear.com's COO Cormac Scanlan has got stars in his eyes and he's set them firmly on space.

After watching the latest Lynx advert, Cormac's signed up to the L.S.A Lynx Space Academy in the bid to become an astronaut.

Lynx are scouring the world for a few brave men for the opportunity of a lifetime; a trip to space. Apparently they'll leave as men and come back as heroes (which is lucky because Cormac gets two things out of this).

The winners of the competition will fly 103km up into space with space tourism company XCOR. Even though we're not quite sure why Lynx are getting involved in this (apart from the publicity obviously), we think it's pretty cool and we want to make Cormac's dream come true.

When asked about his reasons for entering, Cormac said:

"From watching science fiction shows as a kid, to reading popular science books and watching documentaries as an adult, I've always been fascinated by the sheer scale of the universe.

"I guess space is one of the few topics that manage to ignite that childhood sense of awe and wonder we often lose at a very young age. Space to a space-geek is like Father Christmas to a small child, except totally real, genuinely awesome and infinitely more exciting."

Apparently Cormac would love to take his camera to snap the spectacular scenery from space. When asked if he felt he had the physical attributes required to be an astronaut, Cormac said: "Well, my careers advisor at 16 certainly didn't think so when I put "astronaut" down as my "preferred profession" on my PDR (Personal Development Review).

"When he brought it up in the interview I believe his exactly words were 'are you taking the piss mate?' I'd never been spoken to like that by a school official before. Maybe I was 'taking the piss' a little, and I could probably do with trimming up a bit, but the dream was real. I don't remember your name Mr Careers Advisor, but if you happen to be reading this, I'll show you..."

Cormac certainly has the face for space (he looks kinda Russian and he has a beard) and we'd love to see him go, but he'll need a lot of votes to do so. We want gapyear.com to go supernova and we're using Cormac as our launch pad, so do the right thing and push the button...

Update: Despite a valiant effort, Cormac still has his feet firmly on the ground. His quest to get to orbit will continue, so - as they say at NASA - watch this space...